The future home of Blue Moon’s RiNo brewery (Eric Gorski, The Denver Post)..

MillerCoors’ Blue Moon Brewing is planting a flag in Denver’s burgeoning craft brewing district, laying plans to open a new brewery and tasting room in River North after signing a lease on a 26,000-square-foot warehouse space, The Denver Post has learned.

Set to open in 2016, the new Blue Moon location at 1910 38th Street — across from a Pepsi bottling plant — will provide a more visible public profile and added brewing capacity for recipes getting a try-out as a possible Blue Moon seasonal or specialty beers.

Blue Moon Brewing Company founder and head brewmaster Keith Villa at The Sandlot in Denver, birthplace of Blue Moon (provided by MillerCoors).

Growing up in north Denver, Keith Villa would frequent Mexican restaurants with his family and enjoy a creamy, sweet, rice-based drink brought to the table in what looked like a metal cocktail shaker.

This milky, cinnamon-spiked, non-alcoholic concoction was Horchata, a staple of Latin America. Like so many things of childhood, Villa drank it in happily — but it didn’t leave a particular impression.

[media-credit id=351 align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Brewmaster John Legnard with his latest creation – an amber ale for the Rockies’ 20th year.

Not many days go by without someone pulling at the front door of Blue Moon Brewing Company at The Sandlot, only to find it locked. The nation’s first brewery in a ballpark is only open to Coors Field ticket-holders on game days.

That is about to change. The 10-barrel brewhouse that gave birth to the Blue Moon brand 18 years ago is getting a remodel and will open in May to the public as a tasting room on non-game days.

The move is likely to attract both casual drinkers and craft beer connoisseurs curious about the 40 Great American Beer Festival medals won by a tiny branch of one of the world’s largest brewing companies.

“How many taprooms are there in Denver?” said Sandlot brewmaster John Legnard. “It’s high time we did something like this.”

[media-credit name=”Provided by MillerCoors” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Like an altbier, but not exactly.

The name on the ballpark says Coors, but the brewery tucked in the northeast corner of the Rockies’ home at 20th and Blake produces all kinds of beers you’ll never see at the corner liquor store.

With the Colorado Rockies marking their 20th anniversary this year, the brewers at Blue Moon Brewing Co. at The Sandlot decided to come up with something special – an “easy drinking amber ale” that defies traditional style definitions and will be available exclusively at the ballpark all season.

Casey creates sour beers in a corner of the MillerCoors empire (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post).

Troy Casey just finished a series of barrel-aged sour beers made with Colorado-grown blackberries and apricots. He is scheduled to speak next spring at a craft brewers conference about advanced techniques in sour and wild beer production. Rarely does a week go by when he does not answer a question from a Front Range brewer about lagers.

The BA statement – which insiders say had been long discussed and much debated before it was released – raises the stakes in a high-stakes turf battle not just about truth in labeling but shelf space and tap handles from the corner bar to sports stadiums.

Blue Moon has been around. This file art dates from 1999 (Denver Post)

UPDATED: 3:55 p.m. MT with comments from MillerCoors and the Beer Institute on behalf of Anheuser-Busch.

The Boulder-based Brewers Association today stuck a careful toe into an increasingly contentious debate in the U.S. brewing industry, issuing a statement suggesting multi-national brewers “are deliberately attempting to blur the lines” between their own craft beer-inspired brands and craft beer created by small and independent brewers.

The clever headline on the press statement: Craft vs. Crafty (the full text is below).

But the BA stopped short of calling for government intervention or even asking big brewers to change their marketing and labeling. The focus, rather, is on trying to better educate the consumer, BA director Paul Gatza said in an interview.

The statement singles out a couple of beers – Blue Moon, the Belgian wheat that began as a Coors product before the mega-merger/joint venture that led to the creation of MillerCoors, and the Anheuser-Busch InBev product Shock Top. But those are just the most recognized brands that the BA places in the “crafty” category – and only a part of what’s happening in the beer world.

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!